See some photos at:
https://imgur.com/a/8SptP5d
On Saturday, 2/11 I hiked a loop (approx. 9.2 miles) from Roaring Kill to Plateau & Sugarloaf with my friends and aspiring gridiots Val and Yanny. Since the west side of Roaring Kill Road is closed in winter, we took the approach from Dale Lane. The approach road to the trailhead was plowed and clear, with no issues reaching the parking area. We put on Hillsounds soon after we started and kept them on until 2 of us switched to crampons later. Decided to hike the loop counterclockwise so that we'd climb Plateau first and ascend the (anticipated) hard ice sections on Sugarloaf. I really enjoyed the quiet woods in the approach going CCW on the Mink Hollow trail from RK. The climb was gradual and the trail was packed down with patches of ice (I believe that this trail is pretty wet in warmer weather). At the Devil's Path junction, we turned west to climb Plateau. After about 15 minutes we saw that the piped spring was flowing freely. The trail was packed snow at first, but then we hit some steep sections with hard ice higher up. There were a few spots where it would have been extremely difficult if to continue if it hadn't been for one random tree branch just within reach used to pull myself up an icy slope. I made it up to the summit using Hillsounds, but Val switched to crampons just before the final steep part. Those 1.05 miles of wintry steepness just never get any easier for me. It was tough climb and a bit nerve-wracking at times due to the steep hard ice, but it was a beautiful sunny morning and we relaxed at the viewpoint after tagging the summit.
I put on crampons to descend Plateau and climb Sugarloaf, and was very happy for the extra traction. Not surprisingly, we encountered a LOT of hard, slick ice going up Sugarloaf. Yanny made it up using Hillsounds, but until a significant long-term melt or snow dump occurs, I'd recommend using full crampons on the western side of Sugarloaf. We saw lots of people coming down Sugarloaf with just Microspikes (which I think is harder than climbing that section), and didn't hear of any injuries, but a few people we talked to said that they wished they had full crampons with them. I hope everyone got out okay.
We switched back to Hillsounds at the summit and had a quick snack. The descent to Pecoy Notch had a few tricky sections but we managed these relatively well. At Dibbles Quarry, the trail was fairly clear of snow and ice, so we took off our spikes. However, we put them back on about 10 minutes later when the ice reappeared and kept them on to the car. The walk through Dibbles Quarry (where I hadn't been before) was very fun and made a nice finish to a challenging day.​